Crew Blog

“This is not a zoo!”

11 May 2008

- was my joking retort to Jennifer’s expression of disappointment, after a week of racing, of not seeing more wildlife in the ocean and we both had a good laugh.  However, after more than two weeks at sea, I am beginning to feel that I should eat my words.

To the careful eye, the ocean is teeming with activities (well at least from time to time).  From the miniscule to the large, we were treated to a fascinating display of nature’s wonders.  As we sailed down to warmer waters, flying fishes began jumping clear of the waves and flew tens of metres to avoid our boat.  In the night, scores of squids gathered around the boat and leaped up, in their desire for nirvana, towards the light.  A few lucky ones landed on deck. Those that went unnoticed became squid jerky over the course of the hot day…

Of course, we weren’t the only ones with the privileges of lighting up the ocean. Multitudes of jellyfish (we assumed that they are jellyfish) glowed brightly for a couple of seconds in our wake.  During the day, seabirds became our almost constant companions.  Occasionally, a few landed on spreaders to catch their breath.  Some land birds, that had obviously lost their way, were clearly relieved to have found brief respite on the boat.  More peculiar were the sightings of birds standing on floating turtles in the middle of the ocean.

The greatest crowd-pullers were no doubt the ever-playful dolphins. According to the RTWers, this leg was blessed with the most number of dolphins sightings – probably two handfuls.  We were visited several times by big schools that leaped and torpedoed besides the boat.  One particularly large school even went around us in a merry-go-round!  We were slightly less lucky in the whale department – we only caught sight of some humps and big fins rolling through the water on two occasions.

Skimming through the surface, we have only touched the tip of the vast diversity of wildlife hidden in the bowels of the ocean.  Clearly, the oceans are yet the largest zoos the world has to offer.  We really ought to be more protective of it.

Wei Wen

PS – Jen, are you still complaining?